SPS Quarterly Update: April 2017

Published on March 1, 2017 at 11:54 am

VPRI Excellence Awards

Congratulations to Mage Burmer who received the 2017 VPRI Excellence Award for Research Innovation! Mage provides outstanding support to UO research in his role as the Sponsored Projects Services Contract Specialist. Mage provides outstanding support to the entire UO campus research community by facilitating the prompt resolution and processing of contractual transactions and has been crucial in improving and streamlining the internal controls and processes with Sponsored Projects Services in his role as Contract Specialist. Congratulations, Mage!

Other Excellence Award recipients included JoLynn Burdett, who won the Department Grant Administrator Award, and Steve Golledge who won the Core Research Facility Award.

Lawson retirement

Bob Lawson, a sponsored projects administrator, is retiring. Lawson has been an exemplary employee at the UO since 1999. In 2004 he was named the Child and Family Center Employee of the year, and in 2014 he was awarded an administrative excellence award by the research office for his work on special assignment at the Institute of Neuroscience (ION) as their business manager. Lawson has been instrumental in streamlining and improving efficiencies at Sponsored Projects Services and his can-do attitude has been much appreciated! We wish Bob a happy and well-deserved retirement.

Additional Announcements

Blended OPE — The University is moving to a blended OPE rate structure effective July 1, 2017. There are several important difference between this new OPE rate model and our current OPE rate model. We invite you to attend an informational session presented by SPS where we will discuss some of the major differences between the two models and explain how it will affect the budgeting and processing of OPE in sponsored awards including the treatment of leave, VPRI support, and effort commitments.

SPS Training Calendar — Registration for SPS education sessions is migrating to the HR ODT site. Session information can still be found on our calendar, but beginning with our April 2017 sessions, the system will redirect you to the ODT site for class registration. This is part of a campus-wide project to create a single stop to find and keep track of your UO professional development opportunities.

PI and DGA Certification — This is a reminder that PI and DGA certifications are an important and mandatory annual requirement. Certifications are completed on a rolling basis depending on your initial certification date. To date the PI certification is at 100% completion, but for many Department Grant Administrators, it is time to renew your certification in EPCS. Please note that we will be sending out email reminders. If you attempt to access EPCS and your renewal date has passed, the system will autuomatically direct you to the certification upon login.

Sponsored Projects Services
Sponsored Projects Services works with the UO community to provide proposal budget preparation, institutional clearances and grant and contract administration.